My First Christmas Book!

I'm so excited to tell you my new release, my very first Christmas story, is on the shelves now! If you're a member of the book club, and get all 6 books each month, then you received yours back in September. But for those who didn't get it from the book club, I hope you'll look for it now at any store that carries Love Inspired Books (and is carrying all 6 books).

If you can't find it, see if your local bookseller will order it for you. Or check for it online. If you visit my website, http://www.missytippens.com/, you can find links.

I actually started writing this book last December. And the idea came to me as I was writing a blog post for a new blog with a theme of The Twelve Days of Christmas. So I was already in the holiday spirit, and soon after starting it had Christmas decorations and all the trimming surrounding me.

I wonder how it would be to write one in the middle of July! :) But I guess it's pretty easy to catch the Christmas spirit any time of the year.

Here's the back cover blurb of A Forever Christmas:

Sarah Radcliffe’s quiet Christmas back in her hometown will be lost if she agrees to direct the church’s Christmas pageant. But when she meets two little boys determined to gain their father’s attention, Sarah agrees to help. Then she discovers that the dad in question is Gregory Jones, the man she loved and lost. The single dad is working himself to the bone to give his boys the Christmas of their dreams, when all they want is some family time. Time that includes a new mommy. If Sarah can learn to open her heart, she may receive the most wonderful present of all—a family of her own.

And click here to read an excerpt at e-harlequin.com!

Thanks for celebrating a new release with me today! I'd love to hear what you think about Christmas stories. If you had a copy of A Forever Christmas, would you read it now, or would you save it for closer to Christmas?? :)

When news happens next door.

Hi all, Pat Davids here.

Last week I had the privilege of seeing our city’s SWAT team in action. On our street! It isn’t as thrilling as you might think.

The signs were all there that something was going wrong in the house down the block. I didn’t know them except to wave. They kept such a pretty yard and I stopped to tell the young man that once. I’m glad I did, but I wish I had done more.

At the start of the summer their once nice yard became overgrown, the trash started piling up. We speculated on the reason, of course. The economy is bad here, too. Did they lose their jobs or was the house being repossessed? My husband is the one who notices what cars are parked on the street and who they belong to. I can’t tell a Ford from a Fiat. He told me the young man’s car was there only once or twice a week now.

Someone mowed the front yard one day and I thought, good, thing are better, but they weren’t. The young couple was in the process of an ugly divorce. One evening it all became too much. They started fight that resulted in a domestic disturbance call, which became a hostage situation and then a police standoff. While the young man barricaded himself in his once lovely little home and threatened to kill himself, the SWAT team surrounded the place, made the neighbors get inside and stopped all the traffic.

We didn’t know what was going on at the time, just that police is heavy gear with big guns had taken control of our neighborhood. We only learned the sad facts later. Thankfully the young man gave himself up and no one was hurt. I pray he’s getting the help he needs.

I know dramas like this plays out all over the world, but it was so sad to see it happen directly across the street from the neighborhood church. With help so close, God's two children never reached out for it. How sad is that?